red tape

So, being upright media folk, instead of the sort of people who enter the US illegally and work as journalists on a tourist visa, we went to the embassy to get ivisas, the visa that means you can work on media related stuff out there. We were turned down, apparently, because Tom is disabled then we will be driving the story, and not him, therefore what we are doing is entertainment and not news. To get an entertainment visa we need to have a lawyer in the US, which would probably gobble up half our budget and/or the backing of an American production company or news organisation.

We now have turned down for visa against our names on American immigration system, and potentially our small, entirely altruistic, awareness raising documentary is consigned to the dustbin.

No wonder people enter all nations illegally. Unless you bothered to consult a lawyer specialising in visas, which I assume most small filmmakers and immigrants of many kinds don't and can't, the red tape will snatch you.

Perhaps we should smuggle in across the border from Canada in a car. This level of subterfuge is not really ideal given the already significant challenges of traveling with Tom.

What a fuck up. If only we had broken the law, like everyone else seems to.

major :-(

makes lack of cash quite cheery and unproblematic in comparison